One to two days prior to cooking thaw the frozen potatoes in the refrigerator.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove potatoes from refrigerator and cut a few small slits on the front and back of the bags. Place 1 bag at a time in the microwave. Microwave for 1 minute on high. Take out and flip over, microwave for another minute on high. Take out and flip over again, microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute to make potatoes only slightly warm. (Adjust microwave time accordingly – You want the potatoes to be only slightly warm.) In a large mixing bowl add one bag of potatoes, salt, pepper, cheese, sour cream, soup, chicken (break up chicken into small shredded pieces first), now add second bag of potatoes, and lastly add ½ cup of melted butter – Mix everything together thoroughly. (I always add the cheese early and then the melted butter last so that the cheese is covered by other ingredients. This prevents the hot butter from melting the cheese into clumps.) Put the potatoes mixture into a 9×13 dish making sure to spread it evenly and flat. (Or for a smaller serving split in half and put into two 8×8 dishes and freeze the second batch to bake some other time.) Place the potatoes in the preheated oven for approximately 1:30 to 1:45. After the potatoes become golden and are bubbling remove the potatoes from the oven.

My mom, Shirley Brundage, originally got this recipe from Liz Erickson, a good friend of hers in the old neighborhood back in 1966. At that time they were called Funeral Potatoes so my mom changed the name to Party Potatoes. After receiving the recipe from my mom Tim decided to make a few revisions. He doubled the salt and quadrupled the pepper, he started using cream of chicken and herbssoup and he added the canned chicken breast. Enjoy… and pass it along!